DNA testing companies get into the Black Friday game

1of 4Linda Jiang, head of consumer marketing at Burlingame’s Color Genomics, holds a saliva collector from a kit. Companies that make DNA testing kits are trying their hand at Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, adopting some marketing tactics of more traditional retailers.Photo: Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle

2of 4Alok Sabnis, a clinical lab scientist, processes saliva samples with Cassandra Yee at Color Genomics. The Burlingame company is offering deals on its kits through Amazon.Photo: Photos by Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle

If you’ve noticed a flood of ads on TV and social media for DNA test kits featuring smiling families gathered around a dinner table, you’re not alone.

Consumer genetic testing companies like Burlingame’s Color Genomics and Mountain View’s 23andMe are trying their hand at Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, adopting marketing tactics of more traditional retailers and playing up a familiar theme that resonates with many during this time of year.

“Thanksgiving and the holidays are all about families,” said Linda Jiang, head of consumer marketing at Color. “We think this creates an opening to start a dialogue about health and things that run in the family.”

Limited data from DNA testing companies and market researchers indicate that interest in home DNA kits is growing. But regulators and medical ethicists have cautioned people to use the information carefully, and perhaps think twice before sharing their genetic data with private companies.

Color, which sells a hereditary cancer test and a test on heart, cancer and medication response, is offering $50 to $100 off its $249 kit on Amazon through Dec. 2; 23andMe is promoting “Thanksgiving family offers” on its Instagram and Facebook channels, including $50 off its $99 ancestry kits when you buy two or more. The company declined to comment for this story, but its holiday ads feature testimonials from customers who have used their results to locate long-lost family members or biological parents.

“Like most retailers, we saw a real surge in activity on Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year, and we expect to see the same this year,” Jiang said of Color, which is privately held and does not share sales figures.

Linda Jiang, head of consumer marketing at Color Genomics, looks at a DNA testing kit, which the company is offering at a discount on Amazon through Dec. 2.

Photo: Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle

23andMe and Ancestry.com, two of the largest sellers of DNA ancestry kits, are also privately held and do not disclose financial information. But Ancestry said it sold 1.6 million million kits over the four-day Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend last year — breaking a sales record and tripling the number of kits it sold during the same weekend in 2016. And 23andMe DNA kits were a top seller on Amazon Prime Day, the retailer’s mid-July promotion, said Deborah Weinswig of Coresight Research, which tracks e-commerce trends.

Color Genomics began selling its tests on Amazon last year and offered discounts for the first time on Prime Day. Executives were so pleased with the outcome they decided to introduce similar deals on the site for what they hope will be an even busier shopping season during the holidays. Retailers generate as much as 30 percent of their annual sales during the holiday season, the National Retail Federation estimates.

“We thought, wow, there’s so much interest in genetic testing for health on Amazon, we want to do it again for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, because we know our customers are going to Amazon to buy these items they may have been eyeing all year,” Jiang said.

She said the company is prepared for a busy Black Friday. Color employees will be working over the holiday weekend to answer customers’ questions on its Amazon product pages and on Color’s own website and social media channels.

Jiang acknowledged that selling genetic tests is different than selling clothes or home electronics. Customers have many more questions about what their results mean, how to interpret them and whether they should consider taking medical action. They must get a doctor’s approval — either their own physician or one in Color’s network — before viewing their results.

The move to reach a broader customer base through Amazon, particularly during a retail tradition like Black Friday, is a sign that consumer health companies are trying to meet the demand for lower prices and accessible tools to help people manage or detect diseases. Even some traditional health providers like hospitals are offering Black Friday-style price rollbacks for outpatient services. And drug companies are promoting new at-home products that historically have been used in a medical setting, like Abbott’s continuous glucose-monitoring device for diabetics and Exact Sciences’ home colon cancer screening product.

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“There is a growing need for health care companies to try and get a bigger share of the consumer minds for how they will spend their health care dollars, especially as health care costs are continuing to rise,” said Brian Weinstein, an analyst at the financial services firm William Blair & Co.

Federal regulators have warned that the results of direct-to-consumer genetic tests should not be treated as a diagnosis or as medical advice. The day after 23andMe announced it had received FDA authorization to sell a new pharmacogenetic test, which offers insight into how someone may respond to commonly prescribed drugs, the agency issued a statement saying tests that make such claims have not been evaluated by the FDA, may not be supported by scientific evidence and may not be accurate. And medical ethicists worry that private companies amassing vast databases of genetic information are not doing enough to protect users’ data from being accessed by drug companies and law enforcement agencies.

“That said ... the demand for these products should continue to grow nicely, as the price point is reasonable and because people want to learn more about who they are, how they’re connected and how they can live healthier lives,” Weinstein said.

Catherine Ho covers health care and medical technology for the business desk at the San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining the paper in 2017, she worked at The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the legal trade paper the Daily Journal.